O Mother worthy of all praise, you who have given birth to the Word, the Holiest of the Holy, accept this present offering, deliver all men from every affliction, and save from the future punishment those who cry out to you: 'Alleluia!' "

The Feast of St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyris today. There is information on her here.. I blogged a poem on her last year. Prayers for all musicians, particularly those who use their gifts to assist at the Sacred Liturgy, would be most welcome. (That would include prayers for your humble webscribe and the choir to which she belongs.) For others who have her as a special patron, especially these wonderful Religious, happy feast day !

"Who has not heard of the abundant favours gained by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, and of the marvellous consequences which have attended the invocation of St. Antony of Padua? These phenomena are sometimes reported of Saints in their lifetime, as well as after their death, especially if they were evangelists or martyrs. The wild beasts crouched before their victims in the Roman amphitheatre; the axe-man was unable to sever St. Cecilia's head from her body, and St. Peter elicited a spring of water for his jailor's baptism in the Mamertine. St. Francis Xavier turned salt water into fresh for five hundred travellers; St. Raymond was transported over the sea on his cloak; St. Andrew shone brightly in the dark; St. Scholastica gained by her prayers a pouring rain; St. Paul was fed by ravens; and St. Frances saw her guardian Angel. I need not continue the catalogue; here what one party urges, the other admits; they join issue over a fact; that fact is the claim of miracles on the part of the Catholic Church; it is the Protestants' charge, and it is our glory." - Venerable John Henry Newman, C.O., Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England

Today is also the feast of a set of fairly recently beatified Martyrs of England, Scotland, and Wales. The anniversary of the death of C.S. Lewis is today as well, and in honor of those martyrs who died for Christ's Church and the memory of a great Christian who, alas, did not (despite the hopes of the Professor) find his way into the Catholic Church during in his lifetime, I would suggest that prayers for Christian unity would be appropriate.

Friday, November 21, 2003

The Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is today.

"Such, then, is the truth ever cherished in the deep heart of the Church, and witnessed by the keen apprehension of her children, that no limits but those proper to a creature can be assigned to the sanctity of Mary. Therefore, did Abraham believe that a son should be born to him of his aged wife? then Mary's faith must be held as greater when she accepted Gabriel's message. Did Judith consecrate her widowhood to God to the surprise of her people? much more did Mary, from her first youth, devote her virginity. Did Samuel, when a child, inhabit the Temple, secluded from the world? Mary too was by her parents lodged in the same holy precincts, even at the age when children first can choose between good and evil. " - Venerable John Henry Newman, C.O. "On the Fitness of the Glories of Mary", Discourses to Mixed Congregations

Sunday, November 16, 2003

For those wondering about Fr. Michael and his attempt at acting as a Subdeacon for that Tridentine Rite Nuptial Mass... things went well, but not exactly as planned. The one who was supposed to be acting as deacon did not show up, and Fr. Michael had to fill in for him. I will get more details later.
Also, it seems that Fr. Michael ran into a parishoner of St. Blog's while he was in DC - the Man with Black Hat. I'll get more details on that as well.....

On November 16th, 1844Venerable John Henry Newman, who had resigned from the Anglican ministry the previous year but was still struggling with whether he should join the Catholic Church or not, wrote the following in a letter to a friend:

"I am going through what must be gone through; and my trust only is that every day of pain is so much taken from the necessary draught which must be exhausted. There is no fear (humanly speaking) of my moving for a long time yet. This has got out without my intending it; but it is all well. As far as I know myself, my one great distress is the perplexity, unsettlement, alarm, scepticism, which I am causing to so many; and the loss of kind feeling and good opinion on the part of so many, known and unknown, who have wished well to me. And of these two sources of pain it is the former that is the constant, urgent, unmitigated one. I had for days a literal ache all about my heart; and from time to time all the complaints of the Psalmist seemed to belong to me.

And as far as I know myself, my one paramount reason for contemplating a change is my deep, unvarying conviction that our Church is in schism, and that my salvation depends on my joining the Church of Rome. I may use argumenta ad hominem to this person or that; but I am not conscious of resentment, or disgust, at any thing that has happened to me. I have no visions whatever of hope, no schemes of action, in any other sphere more suited to me. I have no existing sympathies with Roman Catholics; I hardly ever, even abroad, was at one of their services; I know none of them, I do not like what I hear of them.

And then, how much I am giving up in so many ways! and to me sacrifices irreparable, not only from my age, when people hate changing, but from my especial love of old associations and the pleasures of memory. Nor am I conscious of any feeling, enthusiastic or heroic, of pleasure in the sacrifice; I have nothing to support me here.

What keeps me yet is what has kept me long; a fear that I am under a delusion; but the conviction remains firm under all circumstances, in all frames of mind. And this most serious feeling is growing on me; viz. that the reasons for which I believe as much as our system teaches, must lead me to believe more, and that not to believe more is to fall back into scepticism.

A thousand thanks for your most kind and consoling letter; though I have not yet spoken of it, it was a great gift."